With China requiring online maps providers to operate under licenses this month, crowd-sourced maps and Google's own online product may soon face elimination in the market, says an analyst.

According to reports, the country's State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping announced last month that it would start issuing licenses to Internet maps providers in the country.

Charice Wang, an analyst with Ovum's telecom regulation team, noted that the maps are also expected to be hosted on servers based in China. This means Google, which provides a maps service in the country but which recently moved its search service to Hong Kong after a dispute with the Chinese government, may be forced to stop including maps of China in its Google Maps service, she noted.